BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I put that anti-seize grease on the pedals when I installed them. I hope that does the trick.

You might be able to get your pedals off with help at FreeRide using one of their cheater bars.

Or try some PB Blaster to free up the threads. Toxic but effective.

I agree with both comments. Putting Permatex anti-seize on pedal threads is a good practice, particularly when the crank arm is aluminum. I may have the wording a little off but this is the gist of it: any time you have dissimilar metals in contact with each other a mild electrical current is produced, which leads to galvanic corrosion between the two metals. The anti-seize is effectively an insulator between the dissimilar metals, and also prevents ordinary corrosion and/or galling. If the cranks have a steel insert for the threads, grease is good enough, and frankly should suffice even if the pedals and cranks are dissimilar.

I guess you could put anti-seize on every last nut and bolt, it shouldn't hurt anything and will help to ensure that everything comes apart easily, especially if you are prone to neglecting the bike. I like to use it on bottle cage bolts and chainring bolts so that they come out 4 years later, but I can't think of anywhere else I'd suggest using it.

If you want to try heat to get the pedal out, don't let anyone heat up the crank arm with anything more than a heat gun as you run the risk of destroying the temper of the aluminum and potentially weakening it by about 80%. I am not sure of the exact temperature where the temper is destroyed, but you don't want to find out. I believe it is lower than anything other than what a lighter would generate.

Edit: I agree with Edmonds comments as well.

There should be no reason to periodically loosen nuts and bolts to make sure they don't seize, as long as things are properly assembled in the first place.

When the pedals are first installed at the shop, the threads should at least be greased. I have found that regular bearing grease works fine. Any time routine maintenance is done, threads should be greased. Any steel bolts that thread into aluminum are especially prone to seizing (such as pedals) and should be especially attended to.

I am a little suspicious of a shop, that should have the proper tools, telling you that they could not get the pedals off. Did they suggest a course of action, or did they just send you on your way?!? If the pedal is seriously seized they may in reality be wary of ripping the threads out of the crankarm, and wary of having to replace the crankset (although if that was the case the responsible thing to do would be to explain the situation to you, and that removal of the pedals might ruin the crank).

How long ago did you buy this bike?

If the concern is possibly ruining the crank, it should be possible to service the pedal bearings without taking the spindle off of the crank. Find someone (or some shop) who knows what they're doing. But you are eventually going to need to take the pedals off.

There is the possibility of heating the crank/pedal joint with a torch to loosen the threads, but I'm hesitant even to suggest that because the alloy crank can be easily weakened, that that is a super bad place to have weak metal. It would almost be preferable to just force the pedal spindle loose and risk ruining the threads, and "helicoil" it if necessary. That's another explanation.

BTW I think anti-seize grease works the opposite of the way you describe -- the metal in it makes it conduct electricity so it neutralizes the current you describe, preventing the dissimilar metals from welding themselves together.

Edit: oh, I see. The metal in the grease is sacrificed in place of the metal in the part that would normally be sacrificed.

im sure you know this, but the left crank/pedal is reverse threaded. right to loosen. left to tighten.

everything mentioned above is great though if this isnt the case.

i also don't want to suggest you're mistaken, but i do want to point out, if only for posterity, that a click in the pedal isn't always a click in the pedal. to me, it's often the most difficult thing to diagnose. sometimes the seat post isn't greased enough and is creaking inside the seat tube. the only place you feel it is in the pedals, because bikes are pretty amazing at transferring energy without loss (saddles, though, are not, for obvious reasons). could be a slightly loosened crank bolt, or creaking between the seat tube and a tube inside it. of course it could also be a busted pedal. anyway, just wanted to point that out, as it causes trouble for a lot of people.

that said, i agree with everyone else. i usually just use grease on bolts whenever i'm doing maintenance, and i don't normally run into problems like this.

I thought I had a click in one of my pedals but it turned out that my kickstand was loose and my foot was tapping it.

Anti seize is overkill for everything (except maybe ti)

blue loctite on on chainring bolts and bottle cage bolts.

Carbon paste on handlebars, seatposts, anything prone to slipping.

Grease for everything else.

Follow up: I have had the bike for maybe 10 years- do not recall if they are the original pedals or not. If I installed them, threads were greased when installed, but not sure if I did or not.

Click is (was) definitley in the pedal- I could feel it in my foot, and it changed or stopped when pedal was turned over. Did not happen when not stepping on that pedal while still turning other one.

Interestingly, it turned into a squeak for a day, then stopped. If it starts again, I will take apart the pedal (while still on the bike) and check and re-grease the bearings.

They did suggest it might destroy the threads, and I said go ahead because at the time I did not think it would stop (had been going for 2 weeks) and I did not want to ride it like that until the pedal fell off.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. I liked it better when I did not work full time and did all of this stuff myself rather than paying someone else to maintain my ride(s).